tempering a blazing soul
by ninja of the shadows
Summary: this is not a sequel or prequel, but a side story to my fic chasing dreams and slashing nightmares. what would you do if you could watch your whole career, your life before it even happens. see the mistakes you made, the lies you believed, see just who you become. would you use that knowledge to change your future? in this story shinn auska will find out his own answer to that.
1. Chapter 1

**Fore-warning, the start is gonna get kinda confusing, all is explained in my usual authors note/rant at the end. For those of you reading my other story, here's a sneak peek into Noah's return.**

 **Enjoy**

 **Tempering a blazing soul**

6 months previously…

Shinn panted as he tried to catch his breath. He and his family had been late due to various reasons getting to the evacuation boats. While the evacuation had begun well before even the first shots were fired, days even, the evacuation had been slow and methodical due to, and unknown to shinn, his family and all citizens of orb except certain military personal, a certain gunpla battlers tactics required the city to be barren by the time the earth alliance launched their attack.

Shinn's family lived outside the initial evacuation zone and had been caught off guard when the E.A. attacked while their part of orb was still just beginning to evacuate.

As they ran down the dirt road that led to the docks he took a moment to glance through the trees. What he saw was…well it was a wonder.

The beach was being heavily defended, but mostly by two particular mobile suits.

No one expected them and even the orb officials had been surprised…well except Erica Simmons, when three astoundingly powerful suits came out of seemingly nowhere and began assisting the defense.

He watched as a salmon colored mobile suit weaved almost gracefully around a group of the E.A. new strike daggers. As it came behind the rear mobile suit it raised a weapon, it was too small for shinn to make out but he quickly knew it was a gun as he saw the machines hand shoot up slightly three times and heard the faint, distant sound of a ballistic weapon firing with each one.

The machine maneuvered around the strike dagger as it fell to its knees but did not explode. From there it came around to the front of the next machine and put the gun to its head, firing once causing the head to explode before booting back then raisin it's leg to kick the machine back.

The strike dagger fell onto it's back and when it tried to get up the salmon colored machine put a bullet in each knee, causing the servo's to die and the machine to stay on the it's back to a degree.

Leaving that one alone it put the weapon away in a holster at its hip, quickly boosting back and away to dodge the remaining squad member's rifle fire as they finally caught up with the quick machine.

As they did so he saw a red and white machine which clearly held two long, curved blades, kabana's, and boosted towards the group which h now had it's back to them. The machine brought both blades down through the shoulders of one strike dagger before turning and bringing its left sword up in a diagonal upward slash, cleanly cutting through the legs of another before the black armor on its left shoulder moved seemingly on its own and punched the machine as it fell, sending it flying across the beach while the machine blocked a beam saber from the last strike dagger with one of its swords.

He was pulled away from the fight as he caught his foot on a rock, shouting as he stumbled but ultimately kept running. He could see it…the docks were not too far away…that was when two machines, custom ones, one in a mobile armor form, another blue artillery looking suit on its back.

The blue suit jumped off the other and in the air fired its arsenal, destroying nearby astrays that were guarding the path.

As they exploded his family stopped and huddled together, his father shielding them as best he could. When the shockwaves settled they began running again but soon another explosion rocked the ground behind them and as they kept running his sister stumbled on a root, falling and losing her phone.

"No my phone!" shouted his sister, mayu. He looked up and saw a blue, white and black machine coming in for an attack on the blue artillery unit and looked back to his family. "Go! I`ll get her phone and catch up!" he shouted and his family moved to run as his slide down the hill to her phone…

 _Tempering a blazing soul_

Luke panted as he ran into the hangar. It was now or never. If Noah could save Nicol…maybe he could save her…help shinn keep from becoming the hate and anger filled lap dog that he was in seed destiny.

He ran over to the repaired strike on the gang planks and climbed into the open cockpit, despite Murdoch yelling at him to stop.

Remembering the show as best he could and the controls of the cockpit pod arcade game the former gunpla battler strapped himself into the strike and took a deep breath, pressing the activation button and listening to the war machine come to life.

"Come on come on…there!" he shouted as he tried to figure out how to open a channel to the bridge…but miriallia beat him to it.

"Luke what are you doing in the strike!? You can't pilot a mobile suit even with its new OS!" she shouted at him

"Please miriallia, I need the aile striker pack and permission to launch! Lives are at stake…specific lives In fact that I think I know how to save!" he exclaimed as he shakily moved the strike into position to be put on the catapult without its MS cage.

The girl glared at him but glanced up, clearly getting orders from captain Ramius. "fine…your good to launch but captain wants you back as soon as this little mission of your is done. Equipping the aile flight pack…also patching la flaga to you to cover you with the build strike." She stated before the comm line ended.

Luke closed his eyes and took deep breaths, feeling the strike be outfitting with the pack that would be the best capable to get him to where he wanted to go…he just hoped he could find Kira in time to do so.

He opened his eyes when mu came on the comms. "All right Luke you got me for five minutes then the captain wants you back. What's the plan?" he asked as he visibly jerked to move his controls so he could dodge something.

"I need to find Kira. He should be engaging the new gat series prototypes…while I can't go too into detail there's a certain family in danger and an important character of the sequel to gundam seed whose attitude towards life depends on me saving them." He said, feeling the catapult throw the strike out of the archangel.

The moment he hit the pedal to climb he also pressed the switch to turn on his phase shift armor. He saw mu in the build strike full package 2.0 and moved towards him.

The former mobile armor pilot groaned. "Seriously getting tired of this "can't talk about the future but this is all some cartoon to us BS." Stated the man as he looked around for Kira.

Finally he found him and without telling Luke maxed out his acceleration towards the freedom.

Luke though was thankfully clever and followed suit, unlike Kira not bothering to worry about the strikes battery and using the aile pack to essentially fly.

Luke meanwhile figured out how to contact people and opened a channel with Noah who was currently playing hide and seek with the forbidden in his custom zaku warrior "phantom pain". Noah and the rest of the gunpla battlers taking part in the fight via a link from the simulation to a large gunpla battle arena in neilson labs, though Noah was actually here and in a scanned in version of the zaku warrior, were all piloting custom suits which Noah deemed a good balance between strong enough to survive but not over powering so as to make this battle ridiculously short and damage the seed plot and timeline.

He had rules for being here.

 **A gunpla being used via the arena could not be gundam class, or if it was it had to be severely under armed, hence the sengoku astray.**

 **One had to understand that while they were battling in the arena, custom software for this disabled plavsky particle based abilities such as the star build strikes discharge system or the sengoku astrays many abilities.**

 **In the case of gundam seed or any universal century series the gunpla could not be a suit from an advanced series, such as bringing the strike freedom in to back Kira up in the freedom or bringing the NU gundam in to waste char in the original mobile suit gundam series…except Noah…but he's just having fun with the prototypes to tie them up**

 **Fighters would also have to understand that that this was technically an alternate universe…they didn't need to know how it happened or how a gunpla arena could essentially act as a bridge. Saving lives was allowed as was obviously killing…but they had to understand they were essentially killing "real people" lives, in Noah's new gundam seed world, were being ended if you destroyed a mobile suit.**

 **Also saving a life like he did Nicol could potentially have consequences, same with ending certain key characters early like say them all ganging up on the gat series porotypes and wiping them out.**

 **The final rule was that anyone entering via arena had to follow Noah's orders, such as sei in his improved build strike full package which he rebuilt just for this was following his order to assist in air defense and meijin kawaguchi and mister neilson were following orders to defend the beach.**

Rules aside, he saw Noah on his communications screen shortly. "what's up Luke?" he asked as he once again faded out of sight, using the basic GN particle properties he gained from the spikes on his shields to float back just out of the forbidden scythes reach and make the extends machine visibly begin searching for him.

"Noah I wanna try to save shinn's family…I think I figured out how and what shot to either throw off or even outright block. Shinn blames Kira for his families death, but if I remember correctly they show the calamity firing first then Kira…I think their shots intercept each other and result in an explosion…if I ram Kira and throw his barrage off can you get between the shots and try to soften or even redirect the explosion away from them?" asked Luke

Noah nodded. "Yeah definitely…but we have to hurry, I just saw the calamity and raider go by and the calamity jumped off." He stated, remembering the opening to gundam seed destiny episode one well.

With that settled Luke watched as Kira dove towards the calamity, firing the shot that caused mayu to drop her phone before maneuvering away from return fire.

Quickly pushing his thrusters to the max without warning mu he flew right into Kira's left side as his barrage fired, throwing the entire thing off.

At the same time as the calamity fired Noah's phantom pain faded into few and soon a green GN field surrounded him as both his shields swung out to also block either shot. He had been careful as he saw shinn slide down to get his sisters phone, noticing the family huddle together as the ground shook when he settled down from hover mode.

In theory the GN field shout have absorbed the blast…but that would have been from a full GN drive. The six cones on his shield were the equivalent of a micro GN condenser/drive, only having enough juice to block one beam that was as strong as the calamity's Scylla cannon and Kira's baleana plasma cannons.

When those three, plus Kira's full barrage hit the field absorbed most of the fire but soon failed and his shields took the hit, also failed and Noah found himself diving off his cockpit hatch as the machine boosted off the ridge from him dragging the accelerator forward as he dove, moving the main blast away from shinn's family but still they were caught in it.

Noah tucked and rolled but still found himself slowly getting up, his left arm dislocated but other side he was bruised and scratched.

He looked up to watch sei's build stroke land in front of the calamity as it tried to fire again but it brought up the modified absorb shield and it opened, absorbing the almost point blank hyper powered beam.

The calamity tried to boosted back but sei beat him to the punch, keeping the shield up and boosting forward, with Kira quickly landing between them and opening up with another barrage which caused all three machine, sei and Kira tailing a fleeing and damaged calamity away from the area.

Noah looked around at the area the blast from his exploding zaku phantom did grab and saw charred ground, fires…but no sign of shinn's family…"shit…we failed…"he thought as he watched Luke land in the strike and put it on one knee, Mu, likely upset at having to babysit him, swiftly landed behind him to cover lukes machine while he got out and began to look around.

Noah didn't want to watch him realize they failed and limped away to scan in his second to last resort machine. He had one more after it but it was to be saved for the second battle and was already scanned in.

 _Tempering a blazing soul_

Luke frantically looked around. Someone had to have survived…he ran over to look at shinn, the stunned boy not noticing him as he glanced at something and his face was wracked with grief. Luke followed his gaze and gasped. There was his sister's arm...again…

"shit…come on…please let me have done something good here besides just watch Noah and fanboy over being on the archangel.." he said quietly as he looked around.

Finally movement caught his attention in the corner of his eye, as well as a hoarse cry for help, to quite to attract shinn or the ORB officer who was dragging him practically away from the blast site.

Luke ran over and gasped. There she was…it wasn't shinn's whole family…but still the one thing that fueled his hate for Kira…

Mayu lay in a puddle of her own blood and looked up to Luke. Alive…barely…but alive…and missing an arm.

"don't worry mayu…I'm gonna get you out of here…"he stated as he scooped the bleeding girl into his arms and ran back to the strike, grunting and groaning as he climbed up the kneeling machine and back into the cockpit, resting the battered and bruised girl in his lap.

The moment the strike was reactivated and standing he turned around and boosted over mu, who quickly contacted him.

"Hey what's the big idea? Where's the fire kid? "He asked but then saw the girl in the video feed.

"I'm sorry mu, please go back to the fighting…I need to get her back to the archangel…contact them and tell them I'll need medical on standby and likely gonna be a crash landing." He said as he moved the strike in a straight shot for the archangel.

Mu nodded and cut the comms. He then opened a line to the archangel's bridge. "Luke says I'm done babysitting, but to tell you he's gonna need emergency medical teams in the hangar and likely is coming in for a crash landing…"he said as he flew the build strike 2.0 back into the fray.

Miriallia nodded and cut the coms as well, relaying mu's message to the necessary people.

Shortly after the strike came in hot, wobbly and just as it reached the catapult ditched it's aile striker pack into the water before turning grey from a dead battery and coasting into the hangar doors, turning around so that as it hit the crash landing net he was able to grab mayu and keep her from flying around in the cockpit.

The moment the strike stabilize and medical crews ran towards it he brought the strike into a crouch and brought mayu out, jumping the short distance from the cockpit hatch to the metal floor, with a grunt, holding her carefully till they got her on a gurney…

 _Tempering a blazing soul_

Shinn couldn't believe it as he turned around and saw the blast results from the black mobile suits explosion. He took a step towards it and looked around. "Mother…father…mayu…"he whispered. Finally he glanced down and saw mayu's arm…"mayu!" he shouted and ran over, despite the orb officers protests….only to find it was just her arm.

Looking back up at the hill he couldn't see any sign of his sister…his mother or father…

Just as shinn fell to his knees a mobile suit flew over and another explosion caused a massive gust of wind.

"Come on kid…we need to go now!" exclaimed the guard, as he force shinn to stand and nearly dragged him into a run back to the docks.

Shinn couldn't believe it…all because of that stupid mobile suit exploding…all this fighting…and him going to get his sisters phone…he was now the only member of his family.

Shinn Asoka…was alone in the world…or so he thought.

On the archangel the doctor and newly staffed orb nurses were helping mayu fight for her life, Luke watching from the doorway, praying she'd live.

Like padme with Anakin in star wars…he knew if she saw what shinn became…in time…she'd likely hate it, and with revealing she was alive…unlike padme…and her talking some sense into him maybe…just maybe he could be like Noah with Nicol and redeem shinn.

 _Tempering a blazing soul_

Current day, cosmic era 71, 6 months later

Shinn, ray and luminaria along with their class of zaft recruits were getting a tour of the mobile suit production facilities, even getting a glimpse at the new models they may be piloting if they passed their classes.

The class passed a door that stated it was top secret, the only one in the entire facility….and for some reason it caused shinn to stop. He felt drawn to the door.

He had no idea that in a whole other universe the computers that made up the zero system had turned themselves on and with Noah away it was time for the newly evolved AI to flex its cybernetic skills.

Ray and Luna stopped and turned back to the blue haired coordinator. "Shinn…come on that's off limits. Or did you not hear the instructor just now? "Asked luminaria as she had a bad feeling in her gut. Shinn was about to go into one of his stubborn and reckless moods and no one was gonna stop him.

Ray raised an eyebrow though, unknown to his classmates to have special privileges within the plants.

Shinn turned back to luminaria and then back to the door. "Yeah I heard but...it feels like something is calling out to me...like I'm supposed to go in there…"stated shinn as he walked up to the door and looked to the keypad.

He turned back to ray. "Hey…you're top of our class in electronic warfare right? Think you can get it open?" he asked.

Ray sighed. "Probably…but if we get in trouble this is all your idea…"said the usually logical and rule following ray saburel, which made luminaria gasp.

"What? Are you serious? Who knows what kind of trouble we could get in if they catch us…"she exclaimed quietly.

Shinn shrugged as ray pretended, without his knowledge, to hack the doors console. "So? I wanna know what's in there and why it's calling to me or whatever." He stated.

After a minute of fake hacking ray put in the emergency code he was given by durandal. With that the door opened and the trio walked in quietly. What they found made them all gasp.

Inside was a beaten and bruised EX-caliber. While it was still new to the text books of zaft academy it was already priority one curriculum and so they all knew full well what a god the machine was.

Whatever researchers were working on it seemed to have left for lunch and so they walked along the gangplank till they stood in front of its open cockpit.

The machine looked like they had been modifying it for some reason.

"This…this is…"Luna couldn't even finish her sentence.

"EX-caliber. The only mobile suit known to the cosmic era of celestials being." Stated ray as he and luminaria looked up into the machines two different colored eyes.

Meanwhile shinn's focus was the open cockpit door. While it was right out of a horror flick now he could hear a subtle whisper…and his entire being was screaming to get in. so while his worry wart classmates examined the machine…he did just that.

The moment he did though he regretted it. Again like a classic horror flick the moment he sat in the chair the cockpit door closed on its own.

Noticing that he was in an old model GINN cockpit which they were currently studying how to use, he grabbed the door release switch and pulled.

It wouldn't budge.

Things got even worse as the machine began to hum to life…interior wise…outside luminaria and ray were still awestruck by the machine.

Shinn pounded on the door, shouting at his friends to go get help…but for some reason they didn't hear him. As the machine booted up the monitors began to glow a bright golden color and shinn found himself experiencing the worst migraine of his life.

He yelled out in pain as he grabbed his head. Even with his superior coordinator body the pain…he was slowly losing a battle to stay conscious.

Finally as the screens glowed so bright it was blinding he lost the fight and blacked out.

As he did the monitors, the whole cockpit instantly shut off, including the zero system computers. It's work was done…time to see what came of it as in the rebuilt and upgraded original simulator cockpit sat shinn, passed out and slumped in the chair, unaware he had transitioned between universes.

 _Tempering a blazing soul'_

3 days ago, build fighters universe…

China rocked her hips back and forth, smiling as her new baby boy sucked on his pacifier, trying to get him to sleep. A ping came from the computer at the hobby shops front counter and she walked over, still rocking the baby as he slowly drifted to sleep.

China noticed a new e-mail. It was from Noah…well his e-mail address anyways.

"Dear china, I do apologize for this inconvenience giving your current situation but I was hoping you could put a real grade destiny gundam on my tab and deliver it to my home, specifically my gunpla lab. Again I apologize for bothering you with this but I am planning to work on a custom destiny when I return from the world tournament. Thank you, Noah Carson"

She raised an eyebrow. It was rather formal in wording for Noah. But still Noah would be good for the destiny. So with that she rang him up for the requested model and went to get it. She'd deliver it later after her baby boy's nap.

 _Tempering a blazing soul_

Shinn groaned as he slowly came too. "Damn…that…what was that?" he asked as he shifted to sit up in his seat. As he slowly opened his eyes he blinked. Gone was the GINN cockpit, now he sat basically in a cockpit shaped…shell.

Looking around he found a lever that was labeled "simulator door lever" confused as to why it said it was a simulator the future faith member pulled it and a moment later the front of the "cockpit slid up and he got a look of just where he was.

The room outside was no longer the hangar that the somehow reconstructed EX-caliber was in and luminaria and ray were gone.

Cautiously he stepped out of the simulator and looked around. The room was dark but with his coordinator enhanced vision he could make out that it was supposed to be a living room. Instead he looked behind the cockpit and saw the mass of shut down computers and monitors.

Taking another step he began to search for a light switch. The technology looked almost primitive compared to what was in the plants. Just what happened to him in EX-calibers cockpit? Was he hallucinating?

Finally shinn found a switch by feeling along the wall. Flipping it he had to shield his eyes at the room's lights. Once they had adjusted he got a better look around the room.

He was right. It was a living room that had been repurposed into something else. This was someone's home…but…did this count as breaking and entering? He hoped not. But then again perhaps this…simulators maker could explain just what happened. Hopefully they came home soon.

Deciding a look around the apartment couldn't hurt he began to explore. The apartment was a mess, no real pictures of loved ones, just chicken scratch notes and piles of books on subjects shinn couldn't comprehend even the name of.

Finally he made his way upstairs and looked around. There were 2 bedrooms, one clearly a guest bedroom given how clean and unused it was, the other, larger and obviously the master bedroom looked as bad as downstairs just add piles of clothes.

"Man this person must be either insane or a damn genius…"he muttered as he found more notes posted along the wall…till he came across an odd room.

After flicking on the lights he saw it looked like a cross between a shop class working station and a mad scientist's lab. Taking a step in he had to close his eyes, a wave of lightheadedness coming over him. When he recovered he shook his head. "Must be some sort of…time jump lag? Whatever it was that happened to me lag?" he thought as he dismissed the lightheadedness as nothing but a side effect of all this.

He noticed a box with pictures on it and a note on top of it on the desk, along with more notes, but more organized. There was also an abundance of tan pieces of resin and odd pieces of some sort of toy?

But as he got closer to the box he saw a familiar list of letters.

Brushing the note off him finally read the full thing…it was a zaft mobile suit designation…

"ZGMF-X42s…destiny?" he said, confused. When did this model come out? He had never heard of it. And it sounded like it would be a prototype. Was it still in the concept phase?

Noticing the chair that whoever used this desk would sit in, he took a seat and opened the box carefully.

"What the…is this some sort of aesthetic test model?" he asked himself as he pulled the plastic bags filled with riggings out till he found the instruction booklet.

He blinked. He…he was on the cover of this book with the machine. "What the…am I somehow in the future?" he was so confused.

Opening the instruction booklet he began to read through the instructions, not questioning how he can read the odd symbols (XP). Reading the first two pages with basic advice on how to build the model, info on the destiny gundam…even on himself…

Even with how confused he was he closed the booklet and picked up the note that had been on the box.

"Noah, I hope you did well in the tournament. I know you feel you aren't worthy of piloting a gundam till you win and I know sei is rooting for you even if you end up fighting him...when you sent me the email ordering this I assume you're pretty sure you`ll win…though I was under the impression you hated the destiny with a passion.

But…I won't judge your choices.

Sincerely, china"

Shinn blinked. Noah? He looked back to the model. He hated the destiny…yet he ordered it? Well…maybe it was a mistake. Looking back at the instructions shinn bit his lip. Was he somehow the pilot for this mobile suit? And if so should he use this as a chance to get to know it early?

While deciding shinn quietly got out of the chair and headed downstairs. Not realizing what he was doing, he passed the living room, went into the kitchen and began scrounging for food…which this person clearly had no true diet. All he found were various pastries apparently called pop tarts in many different flavors.

Looking into the fridge for a drink he found a few cases of something called "DR pepper" frowning he grabbed one of the cases and set it on the counter. He then looked through all the pop tart flavors and grabbed a box of cookie dough and a box of s'mores flavor.

Setting those on the case of soda he picked it all up and headed back to the workshop. Setting the soda on the floor and opening a box of pop tarts. Before shinn knew it the riggings were out of the bags and set up like it shows in the instruction booklet, a can of DR pepper nearby and open, and a bite of cookie dough pop tarts in his mouth.

He blinked. Well…it seemed he would be building this model. It was then he noticed a lab top set up in a corner with a notebook on it. He picked up the notebook and flipped through it. He raised an eyebrow. These were mobile suit designs.

One looked like a…well almost an outdated version of the strike daggers the earth alliance was using now...but it was covered in pistols and knives and had a heavy sniper rifle and four weapon cases on its back.

Another looked like…he immediately tossed the notebook across the room and wished he had a standard issue side arm to shoot it.

The machine on the page…was the zaku "phantom pain"…the one that exploded and killed his family.

He took a few deep breaths and sat down, turning to the laptop and turning it on…well apparently waking it up from sleep mode. On the screen he saw a video…looking to the title, gundam seed destiny episode 39.

It was snowing, and as he pressed play the "camera" this was clearly a cartoon" scrolled down to show a mobile suit…it looked like an advanced version of the GAT-x105 strike, aile pack, that he learned about in class….but more advanced.

It showed the mobile suit walk into the lake that was in front of it, slowly…like the pilot inside was sad for some reason. He blinked when the machine stopped and the cockpit opened…to show him…and a girl in a pink flight suit.

He paused it for a moment…as any guy would…and admired the fact he was wearing a zaft red elite flight suit and didn't look much older than he did now. He knew he was gonna graduate with flying colors…maybe…

He continued the video and watched as he looked angry for some reason, then glanced down at the girl and caressed her cheek before pulling her close to him. Clearly he loved this girl at some point.

Then there was a series of flashbacks, one of them grabbed at his heart as the girl struggled, clearly fighting her own body as she had an oxygen mask over her mouth. As she struggled she seemed to look right at him and say, "shinn…you said…you`d protect me…"

He couldn't help but tear up as he watched the flashback of her dying in his arms…telling him she loved him as her dying words. Why? Why did she have to die?

And Stella…"Stella…"he said, as if seeing how a potential lovers name felt on his tongue. It did have a…natural sense to it…like he was meant to love her…

He continued watching as "he" told her it was alright…then brought the machines hand to the cockpit and somehow…he was still in training… but somehow made the arm extend and he walked out onto the finger tips, gently setting her in the water.

"there's no longer anything for you to be afraid of…you don't have to suffer anymore…" he said through tears as he let the girl go, letting her body sink slowly, peacefully with the weight of the flight suit.

Another flash back and he watched him carry her to his waiting mobile suit…his mobile suit…he felt sad…knowing he would be in command of such an advanced looking machine…and yet he couldn't save the one he loved…

"There's nothing to frighten you anymore…no one to be cruel to you…"

Now shinn was crying…would he have to endure this? If this was his future could he prevent this? If it was his past what kept him from saving her?

"So…be at peace…and rest peacefully in this place…" he said as he began outright sobbing.

As he cried on screen shinn, without meaning too slammed his fist on the desk and said, at the same time as on screen, the exact same word. Almost…

"I said I'd protect her…"he turn around and grabbed a nearby plastic toy, throwing it across the room. "I SAID I`D PROTECT HER!" he shouted, falling to his knees. Why? Why did he feel this way? It was just some carton right? O-or maybe it was a…somehow cartoonified TV show. Maybe for some reason he left zaft and began acting?

But he couldn't stop the tears, not realizing how much he was mimicking himself in the episode.

"Stella…I'm sorry I failed you…I…if it is my future I swear I'll do all I can to stop it from happening!" he shouted, slamming his fist on the floor. Finally he stopped crying and got up, jumping into the chair he got on the laptop and found out he was halfway through the episode. He wanted to watch this…he wanted to find out just how this happened. How he fell in love, what that machines name was.

If this was his future…he was not going to let it repeat itself. He would save her…he would protect her…she would never have to suffer again whatever it was he had sworn to protect her from.

With that he found the list of episodes and clicked on episode 1. If he was really going to know how to stop that from happening…he'd need to start from the beginning…

Even as he began to work determinedly on building this destiny machine…he had failed to notice just what machine he had thrown and now broke…

It was an impulse gundam, force silhouette that had been in the middle of being weather treated to look as it had in that episode, in the corner of the workshop was the beginning to a small diorama of the lake it would be standing in, a painted resin figure of Stella already beginning to sink in the solid blue block of clear resin.

 **Tempering a blazing soul**

 **Ok…so I'm sorry to my fans who read this and seem confused. I got some writers block on my next chapter for chasing dreams and slashing nightmares so I thought I'd start shinn's little spin off story. And please, those who read my other story…YES NOAH IS AWAY AT THE TOURNAMENT BUT WILL COME BACK IN THE OTHER STORY BEFORE SHINN GOES BACK…no shinn will not be squatting in his home though Noah will earn of his transfer to the build fighter universe aka his reality**

 **Anyways hope to get good reviews, and I know the orb scene/opening may have been a bit confusing. To clarify and spoil the ending to chasing dreams and slashing nightmares…well…part of it. Noah will technically die again…almost. But he will disappear from both universes. This story starts technically in the middle of that story but shins transition to the build fighters universe takes place between gundam seed and destiny.**

 **Confusing I know but trust me…I'm a complex person…it`ll all become clear when I finish my other story and this one and the sequel merge into one story.**

 **And before I get flames of shinn watching destiny and knowing everything…gonna spoil this little bit…when he goes back, like Noah only being in the simulator for a few minutes, but was in gundam seed for months, shinn will be gone for months but sadly pass out again when he crosses and wake up a minute or two after he left, but due to the painful crossover he will lose all memory of watching the series, even the destiny gundam itself, but like flay he will be getting déjà vu and it will influence him and help me actually build his character.**


	2. team impulse

**Thought I'd take this moment to do the usual "I don't own gundam seed or guild fighters or any characters from them or gunpla/gundams. I do however take ownership of all OC's though some models I may not have originally come up with but I will be modified to be original to me.**

 **Anyways please enjoy**

 **Team impulse**

"reality" 0823 aka 8:23 am

Shinn groaned as he slowly came too. He felt groggy and sore…and his head hurt. He slowly lifted it and looked around. For a moment, he forgot where he was and he quickly sat up straight, freaking out till he looked at the desk before him and saw the completed destiny gundam.

Destiny…was this his destiny? Not in the name of the model but…he was still confused as to what he had been watching. He had clocked when he started which was around 10:45 PM. The violet haired coordinator had no clue when he passed out but clearly he had finished the model and looking to the laptop had remembered to pause his video as the screen was black, likely asleep.

Moving the wireless mouse the dinosaur of a computer, well compared to the plants at least, woke up and he found himself in the middle of episode 23 and he had just watched himself destroy the former zaft prototype, abyss.

Realizing he was hungry shinn yawned and stood up, stretching as his body began to wake up. Sadly, he was still adjusting to his surroundings and as he turned to leave the workshop his hand swung too close to the desk and caught the back of his destiny gundam.

Unfortunately, this time even being born a coordinator…his reflexes weren't fast enough. By the time he realized his hand had caught the model it was already falling. He bent down quickly to try and catch it but he was a moment too late and it hit the hard floor, a horrible snapping sound being made along with the usual glass hitting the floor sound that came from gunpla falling.

Shinn's heart sank as he looked at the model he had worked all night to build.

It had landed on it's right side and with the right wing being wider than the body it hit first, was bent back…and snapped just before the joint connecting it to its backpack.

Like someone carefully scooping up the remains of their most prized possession he carefully gathered both the broken wing, the gunpla and the few small pieces of plastic from where it broke.

Setting all the broken pieces on the desk he held up the broken wing and the model, biting his lip as he tried to figure out not only why it broke so easily but also if he could fix it.

He had to raise an eyebrow though when he discovered what he felt was a flaw in the design in the destiny gundam that he clearly didn't catch while building it. (1) he set the broken wing down and began moving the one still attached to it. The wing could move up and down…somewhat…but was otherwise static and held out to the side. He began to look the model over and realized it had only a few thrusters…though likely there were maneuvering thrusters that were not in the models design.

"what the hell? who designs a mobile suit with one big thruster then it's other thrusters on wings that can only move up or down…how the hell does this thing even move?" asked shinn as he accidentally applied too much pressure to the second wing trying to see if maybe it was just stiff joints…only to break it as well.

Sighing, the coordinator teen looked down at the broken model and realized he couldn't study it in this state. Not as a model but in such a broken state.

Turning around he decided to forget breakfast and set about beginning to try and fix the model…

Within a half hour the wings were glued back on but one was higher than the other and the right wing was shorter since he ended up missing some smaller pieces.

All in all…it looked like shit. Growling the boy began to try and think of what he could do. He had no knowledge of the area so he did not know how close the nearest hobby shop was…and his next dilemma was the fact he had none of this place or time or wherever he was' currency. How was he going to get repair parts or just another model?

As he looked around for a phonebook or directory or something he found a card that said, "Lori hobbies" on it. It had the address, phone number, and name of one of its employee.

"china Lori…didn't she write that note that was on the box yesterday?" he asked himself before turning to the laptop. Opening a new tab in the internet browser he had been watching gundam seed destiny in he typed the address into the search bar.

A website called "google" came up and the first option was a "google maps" which seemed to have directions to the store from his location.

Clicking the link he utilized his coordinator memory to memorize both the map and detailed instructions. With that he stood up, grabbed the last pack of pop tarts he noticed he had yet to eat from the s'mores box, which so far of the two he had eaten…this flavor was his favorite. He put the pastries in his pocket and grabbed the horribly repaired model in one hand and with his free hand he put his zaft green hat on and left the room, then the apartment…and began his journey to Lori hobbies on foot.

After all…nothing would stop him from fixing this model, learning the mobile suit inside and out, then going back and if he was to re-live the scenario of Stella's death…save her instead of letting that "perfect coordinator" kill her.

 _Team impulse_

" **reality" 0900, Lori hobbies**

Mr. ral beamed with pride as he dusted the shelves of Lori's hobbies. While he was not close to admitting he was an old man he was still a crack gunpla fighter and damn it she may not be rinko Lori but still…helping china was the next best thing.

The Lori woman was out at her son…aptly named "amuro ray Lori" …yes, the gundam obsession in this family was real…either way she was out seeing to his first doctors visit.

She had called him to watch the shop since they didn't exactly have another employee. Besides it was nice to be here. Good memories…good times.

He blinked when he heard the door open and the motion sensor ding as a customer walked in. he turned to the door and smiled. "hello and welcome to Lori's hobbies. Let me know if you need any help." Said the elderly gunpla battler before looking at just who the customer was.

He blinked….

"who are you?" asked Mr. ral. The boy seemed distraught by that question and he just walked off to search the isles. Ral noticed a busted but glue repaired destiny gunpla in his hands. It was a real grade…well built…

Suddenly the boys appearance and something china had said the other day clicked in his mind and he ran back to the register, pulling out the notebook that held their list of customers who had tabs and a small envelope for receipts of unpaid for merchandise which at the end of each day they tallied up receipts and wrote down the new tab amount for each customer.

Turning to Noah Carson's page he pulled out the only receipt, his tab having recently been paid off due to the world tournament. Just as he thought…

Noah's only "purchase" had been a real grade destiny gundam. Just as he was about to go find the teen he looked up to see him set a new destiny gundam on the counter, still silent as he looked to the elderly gentlemen.

"you…do you know Noah Carson?" he asked and the moment he said the name the boys look went from neutral to practically foaming at the mouth with rage.

"you mean the former leader of celestial being? Yeah…he's dead. What about him?" asked shinn.

Ignoring the boy practically foaming at the mouth at the mention of Noah running celestial being and being dead he nodded. "I see…do you know how you got here?" asked ral, which seemed to throw the boy off.

"or a better question…do you know who you are?"

The question once again threw him off but he quickly recovered this time. "my name is shinn asuka. I`m a student in the zaft academy and still hold the rank of a green novice. As to how I got here? All I know is one second I got into EX-calibers cockpit…Noah's personal mobile suit by the way…and then all I remember is all the monitors glowing gold and the worst headache of my life. I passed out…next thing I know I wake up, open the cockpit finally and I'm in someone…apparently, Noah Carson's house." Stated shinn, every word holding a hint of annoyance and venom as it was clear ral was irritating him.

The builder of the gouf R35 and the dom R35 nodded his head a couple times. "I see…that confirms it…you are the real shinn asuka and was likely brought here by the zero system Noah is rumored to have built. But he lost EX-caliber…and the system has been shut down since he left to fight in the world tournament. I wonder how It brought you here…"he said, feeling like the clearly sentient program had decided to mimic the real zero system with the golden monitors.

Shinn blinked. The real shinn asuka? There were others? But he had never run into anyone else with his name? and the way he said it it sounded like his name was quite common.

"what do you mean…the real shinn asuka?" asked the teen. His question was answered as Mr. ral turned the computers monitor and began showing him pictures of people dressing up as him, videos of them walking around as him at conventions…

What? Wait…so…this wasn't the future? And it wasn't the past…but…then...

"you have crossed into an alternate dimension where your life…your entire world is all just an animated cartoon…" stated ral bluntly before closing his eyes and folding his arms over his chest as if in thought. "and the fact you're wearing a green uniform means you haven't even piloted your impulse gundam yet…and yet the system decided to order you a destiny gundam…yes…that's the only explanation as Noah hates the destiny gundam." he said before opening his eyes and slamming his hands on the counter, palms open and down with determination in his eyes.

Shinn took a step back and raised an eyebrow. This man had issues…but his sanity aside his eyes went wide when it finally dawned on him just what the man had said. "an alternate universe? But…but that's not possible!" he exclaimed as he took another step back.

Once more the old man closed his eyes and nodded. "just as Noah went to the cosmic era through a fluke in the system he designed it seems the system became sentient as he thought and has pulled you here. For what reason? I am sadly not the one to ask." He said before walking around the counter.

Shinn turned to him as the man reached out and put his hands on the coordinators shoulders. "shinn asuka…it is not a coincidence that the zero-system brought you here!" he exclaimed before pointing to the destiny gundam box. "it is your DESTINY to come here, to experience gunpla battle and become an even better pilot then you are in the anime!" he exclaimed before stepping back and crossing his arms.

Shinn's eyes went wide. Was this guy for real? There was a way to fight with this destiny gundam? To become a pilot before he even passed his classes?!

Mr. rals body language softened though as he reached up to scratch his cheek. "it…may also be to help you gain some character…" he said which made shinn raise his eyebrow. "what is that supposed to mean?" asked the fiery teen.

The old man chuckled nervously. "never mind that. Let's get your gunpla fixed and then I shall teach you how to fight in a gunpla battle." He said which caused Shinn's gaze to become serious and they both turned to the new in box real grade destiny gundam and Shinn's broken one…

 _Team impulse_

A few hours later…

shinn was inside the haptic cockpit of a gunpla battle system. His real grade destiny which now was not only repaired but the old man, who finally told shinn his name "Mr. ral" had shown him how to tune the model and helped him apply a paint job to it. Same exact colors but some were now flat while others were metallic.

He also showed him how to apply both sticker and waterslide decals along with panel lining. Over all the model looked twice as good as when shinn woke up this morning.

Across from him on the desert map was Mr. rals new "prototype gouf R35". Unknown to shinn this was basically his normal Gouf R35 just the concept in its entirety transferred to the new gundam origin's gouf prototype (tactical demonstration) model.

Shinn brought the right hand of the destiny gundam up to hold it in front of the main camera by using the control orbs as if they were his own hand. As he flexed his right hand, fingers tightening on indentations that symbolized the fingers of the gunpla which he found out was an abbreviation for what the destiny model was.

As he did this the destiny flexed its own hand.

It was amazing. When he placed it on this GP base thing it's thumb and trigger finger could be moved separately but the other three fingers were all molded together.

Instead now he could move each finger individually. Speaking of which an alarm blared in the cockpit and the distracted teen swore as he accessed his arsenal just as Mr. ral had taught him and brought his right arm further across to hold in front of his chest while a beam shield sprang to life off the emitter on the destiny's right wrist

He did this just in time to block the barrage Mr. ral fired at him from his dual "hand guns". After a moment of this Mr. ral stopped and shinn realized he had to pay attention now, ral having given him enough time to adjust to the environment and idea of making the model move.

With that in mind shinn drew his beam rifle and fired a couple shots at ral which caused him to have to block them.

The man scoffed as he began to lower his shields. "this is no Ginn boy…no Ginn!" he exclaimed proudly…but in his arrogance, he had not paid attention to shinn and he had to gun it to the left to dodge a boosting sideways slash from his anti-ship sword like when he used the wings of light…just without the wings of light.

Like the coordinator he was but also UNLIKE the fighting style he had in the show he landed and turned, bringing his rifle back up and firing a few more shots from the rifle in one hand while holding the sword in his other. This time ral dodged each one before once more raising his arms to fire another barrage.

Just as he was about to though he found himself having to dodge a flurry of slashes and stabs from shinn before finally the boy boosted back and ral knew exactly what he was going to do.

Moving just in the nick of time he narrowly dodged a rapidly fired blast from the destiny's anti-ship beam cannon. But as he focused on dodging, like sekai with Noah's custom sword impulse…he didn't notice one of shinns flash edge boomerangs was missing and as he landed he was warned almost too late of the incoming projectile. He grunted as he turned to bring up one of his shields and allow it to dig into the protective device. The problem was the beam dug all the way into the gun under the shield.

For the first time since his spar with china's younger brother…Mr. ral…had to drop his shield.

As he disengaged the shield and gun combo before raising his second shield to block the explosion he was nearly caught off guard once more as shinn actually moved behind the cloud of smoke and had brought out his beam cannon and fired another shot.

As the mixture of crimson, blue and white shot through the smoke cloud ral brought his second shield up and was forced back by it.

While he knew fighting something like the destiny in atmosphere with a ground based suit that has been modified and tuned to work in space was not the best idea…he thought since shinn did not even have any experience as a gundam pilot yet he wouldn't be so tough to handle.

Instead shinn was taking to the destiny gundam like he had been piloting it for years.

At this point as ral was forced to toss his second shield and draw both his heat sabers ral couldn't tell if it was because the base model of this gouf was a prototype OF the gouf or if the blue giant had finally gotten old enough that his reflexes were failing him?

Or maybe it was just because his opponent was a true blue coordinator?

Either way as shinn charged him with the anti-ship sword he launched his heat whip which wrapped around the sword and began to glow.

Not knowing what that meant shinn continued to push with the sword till the whip did its job and the beam sword blew up in his hand.

Ral stood his ground as shinn seemed suddenly lost. The destiny was in truth light in terms of an arsenal…one of its many flaws, to Noah at least. You only had to eliminate one of the two folding weapons on its back and you limited it to either medium-close rang or medium-long range according to Noah.

Deciding he gave the boy enough time to think he boosted towards him, deciding to end the fight with one blow. This was where shin sadly mimicked himself in the show though….except this time it worked.

As ral brought both his heat swords down on shinn the boy powered up his Palma fiocina in both palms and caught the swords.

At this point it became a struggle in strength. The moment ral felt a bead of sweat fall from his forehead he finally called it…he was getting too old to train new gunpla fighters…

With that thought he found himself distracted and grunted as shinn decided instead of pushing the swords back he stepped back, gripped the blades tighter and pulled, stealing both orange blades from the gouf though they began to lose their glow the moment they left his hands.

Capitalizing on their remaining heat though shinn tossed both swords up and as they came back down, grabbed the handles and treated them like the strikes armor Schneider daggers. In three quick moves he stabbed one of the heat swords through the prototype gouf's gut before stabbing his second sword through his right shoulder. Shinn clearly didn't know that in gunpla battle a cockpit shot was just as deadly as in his version of real life.

This was made apparent as he quickly boosted back like he was trying to get away from the exploding gouf but before it could he drew his beam cannon in one hand and in almost a reference to Kira and his freedom gundam he fired the heavy beam cannon, his beam rifle AND his CIWS into the gouf, which combined with its explosion…well…as the cloud of smoke vanished the arena called out a battle ended.

The last they saw of the battle damage before the plavsky particles dissipated…the gouf…well let's just say the most intact piece left was its head. But as the particles faded and the mobile suits simulated damage went away, leaving both models standing facing each other as if nothing happened. After all they had been fighting at damage level c to keep shinns destiny in peak condition.

Shinn seemed more then excited as he ran around the arena and grabbed his model, looking it over and making sure ral hadn't lied when he said the model would not actually mirror any damage it takes in the arena.

Once shinn was confident that the model was untouched he turned to see ral just staring at his model. the old man seemed sad. What was wrong? Had shinn done something wrong? He followed all his teachings in class, mad full use of his arsenal…what did he do wrong?

"Mr. ral…you ok?" asked shinn as he set the destiny down and watched ral slowly pick up his gouf.

"I used to be able to count on my hands the number of fighters able to make me drop my shields….but lately that number is growing." He said somberly before looking up to shinn with a look of pride and amazement. "whether it's because you're a coordinator or I'm just an old man…I think you'd do great in an actual tournament. Sadly, the open tournament is already in its final rounds…. but…the under 19 tournament is coming up…" he said, the gears beginning to turn in his head.

"and…I think sei's old school is "auditioning" for their final team member…" he stated as he seemed to hurry out of the small battle arena room. Shinn grabbed his destiny model and followed him, curious as to what all he was talking about.

 _Team impulse_

Ying sighed as the plavsky particles in the gunpla clubs battle room faded and another one of their members left with their head hung down and their most prized model scuffed and damaged.

"god damn it! Miguel, I thought we had a good membership group this year?!" exclaimed the girl as she gathered her custom snow white kampfer she named "the hare"

The boy she was speaking too, Miguel, was a transfer student…a navy brat from America who was going to their school and had become interested in gunpla after he tried it using a basic heavyarms model.

At the moment he was tuning his now custom, neon green heavyarms custom named "turtle"

While this wasn't their first year entering the under 19 tournament they usually fought the rest of the year in duo tournaments. Hence the mobile suits "the turtle and the hare" he was their 3 man teams heavy weapons specialist and a tank.

Ying was a CQB, hit and run, rapid assault type of fighter. Most of those that found her as their enemy were destroyed before they even knew what happened. Tuned for speed and customized even further for guerrilla warfare the mobile suit was a white blur half the time.

The problem this year was their mid/all range fighter had just moved and so they were down a fighter. Now they were rushing to find a replacement by testing their members. The test was they had to last 5 minutes in a match in a pre-set map in a colony against ying. If they could last that long and had the right model…then they were in. sadly most of their members were good builders…but control wise were basically salvager bait.

The boy shrugged. "we did, we had a high turn-out, great builders, but I never said we tested their piloting skills. After all you were the one wanting to wait and see their natural talent instead of hold practice bout's to test them AND potentially find a few select battlers to train and finally run auditions on." He stated as he looked up from his heavyarms.

Ying sighed. "yeah I guess you're right. I mean who was I kidding. Lexi was just…there is no replacing her. I mean she may as well have been the next sekai kamiki or reiji…she just never had time to really practice thanks to her family. If she just got a little practice...last year would have been the year!" she exclaimed before falling down on the arena in defeat.

She heard a knock on the door and waved to it. "yeah yeah give me five minutes. You aren't a member of our club obviously since our last hope just failed…but what the hell…just give me five minutes to accept the fact we may not even be entering the tournament this year." She said, slightly muffled as she kept lying face down on the arena.

Mr. ral, the one who had knocked, cleared his throat before saying, "I may have your answer right here." He stated as he came into the room along with another person if she was hearing correctly.

But also upon hearing who it was she shot up and smiled. Mr. Ral was the one who trained reiji and sekai, so if he thought he found their answer then hot damn they were saved!

Well at least that was her line of thinking…. till she saw his answer. It was a boy who looked like he had made the best shinn asuka cosplay ever. The only issue…was the zaft green uniform. at this…she couldn't help but start laughing, even more-so when he set down an extremely well built, but also straight built real grade destiny gundam.

This seemed to anger the boy but as he opened his mouth to speak ral put his hand in front of him. "why are you laughing?" he asked, which was what shinn was about to ask word for word but with more rage behind it.

"because the kid you brought as our "answer" is almost an identical twin to the lap dog of zaft AND uses the most unoriginal, most horribly designed gundam for his gunpla…which in both cases he's also wearing the wrong uniform!" she exclaimed, still laughing.

Mr. rals eyebrows furrowed at this and he slammed his hand down on the arena which got the girl to stop laughing as he became serious. "you really would throw away someone me, the blue giant, the one who trained both sekai kamiki and reiji who are the only known masters aside from sei himself to master the build series of gunpla…all because of his own chosen gunpla and his looks?" he asked angrily, clearly the girl had struck some nerve.

She shook her head, both her and Miguel standing at attention. "no sir! I merely…well…you know how I feel about shinn asuka and how a lot of the gundam community does, same with the destiny gundam. "she stated as she reached back to rub the back of her head shamefully.

Mr. ral growled slightly. He did in fact know shinn was not exactly a super popular character amongst gundam fans. Gundam seed destiny yes…but his hot head, brash actions, and the fact he did become a lapdog for durandal made him less then favored for the fact he got almost ZERO-character development and all in all was an apple that fell far FAR from the tree of gundam pilots in terms of personality, piloting style, and his ability to read into a situation and tell when his orders were far from morally correct.

deciding that the girl would not be pleased with just words he walked over to their gunpla battle arena. Shinn was still quiet but watched the man, doing his best to keep his temper. "Mr. ral what are you doing? You want me to fight him?" she asked as the arena started up.

"yes…for the first time since I fought china's brother before the nationals for the under 19 tournament I was forced to drop my shields to continue to fight someone. Furthermore, I did not just drop them…he destroyed them." He said and both Miguel and ying gasped. "so yes and no. I do not want him to fight just you…I want him to fight both of you." he stated and motioned for shinn to take his place at the arena.

The violet haired coordinator was hesitant but ultimately did so. Once he stood in front of a launch position he set the GP base Mr. ral had given him on the arena system and then waited as the two teens he was supposed to be fighting gawked at him. he still was unsure what it meant to have made Mr. ral drop his shields. Again he was just following what he had been taught so far.

He heard the other two teens set their GP bases down and the arena told him to set his gunpla. He looked to his destiny gundam. earlier he fought ral on damage level c…the arena had announced level b for damage. He hoped that meant his hard work wouldn't get too damaged. But as he turned it over in his hands, giving it one last once over he remembered what the girl had said about it being the most unoriginal gundam. maybe if it did get damaged…he could customize it?

Either way he set the gundam down and watched as it was once more scanned, the head snapping to attention as its eyes flashed to life. Gripping the control balls shinn took a deep breath and pushed the accelerator forward. Something deep down told him to just stay quiet for now. it was like Mr. ral didn't want them hearing his voice. But then again if they found out he WAS the real shinn asuka then maybe they would challenge him differently? Or maybe since he was a real coordinator he'd get special treatment by them?

Either way as he launched he saw the colony they would be fighting in and landed in a small park. It still amazed him that he was able to do this. To pilot a mobile suit before his training was even complete…how cool was this?

His train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of alarms filling his holographic cockpit and his head snapped to his right screen, then his left. It seemed one of them had missiles…and a lot of them as currently two separate sets of missile was making a pincer movement towards him, flanking from the left and right.

Deciding it was too risky to just boost backwards and try to shoot them all down with his head Vulcans and his arm shields wouldn't last long against that many missiles, he instead boosted forward down a street that came to a T intersection.

His first reaction was to turn right but when he did he instead found himself staring down the four chain guns of Miguel's "turtle" as they spun up. Quickly he boosted back but something seemed off as the moment he backed up, straight mind you, but the moment he backed up the guns stopped spinning…why not just try and open up on him?

With that thought he quickly spun around and found himself inches from spearing himself on ying's heat sword. It was a classic tactic the two used to end a match when it came down to a two vs one…and a tactic that rarely was outmaneuvered.

Upon seeing the glowing orange blade shinn lit up his left Palma fiocina and shoved the blade out of the way before his right arm brought his beam rifle to bear at point blank range on "the hare". Suffice to say this surprised the girl but before shinn could get a shot off she boosted back then juked to the right around the corner, disappearing as the beam left the barrel and struck a building at the end of the street.

Growling shinn turned around and brought his hyper impulse cannon to bear on where the turtle HAD been. Key word…had. The two enemy mobile suits had vanished.

To say this annoyed the coordinator was an understatement and with that he deiced to begin searching. But instead of hovering or flying through the city he just walked, the loud thuds of each step echoing through the colony. After all this was a survival match right? Why run right to the enemy when if he walked they would have to come to him?

Meanwhile 3 blocks down the duo were trying to figure out how shinn had reacted as quickly as he did.

To have dodged or even boosted back into Miguel's "back-up barrage" which was possible ending 2 for that little tactic would have been expected of a good fighter. They still likely would have lost but they would have escaped "the hare" which was hard enough. But to have been quick enough in reacting to bat her blade away then try and point blank her with his rifle right there…she was surprised.

The fact he was walking around gave them an idea of his location…but the fact he could react to that had them both trying to figure out how to fight him. her hare kampfer was the fastest mobile suit in the school district. She had even kept up with a 00 quan[t] while in trans-am. His turtle was strong defensively, it's armaments weren't any different or customized like hers but he had layer after layer of added plastic sheeting to give himself a shell of sorts that was basically a thicker heavyarms…. but this also made it slower.

It was why if he was on the front lines normally she was there to back him up and draw heat off him. finally, ying decided it was time to try and solo him. so, as he waited for his heavyarms to naturally re-supply while also sadly using up plenty of plavsky particles in doing so she was going to try and get this kid before he could reach Miguel.

She hovered through the colony, deciding it was quieter and slower then flying so she wouldn't miss him. finally, she found him on a riverbank. He had his gundam on one knee, looking down into the river, as if staring at his reflection.

She had to stifle a giggle when it turned out that was what he was doing when a shift in the gundams arms had it leaning down to look closer. Had this kid never watched gundam seed destiny? Or was he using the river to examine his gundam closer? What no magnifying glasses where he lived?

Once more she drew her heat sword and began to slowly creep towards him. the novice showed no signs of knowing she was there. Finally she gripped the blade with both hands and brought it back to run him through his back. "guess you're not as strong as Mr. ral says…" she whispered as she pushed both her arm rakes forward to run the blade through the destiny. Instead she quickly found herself pushed to the side slightly and blinked.

Looking upon the gundam she gasped as she saw the anti-ship sword had opened and the beam was currently in contact with her heat saber, having shifted and blocked the stab as if it were a slash.

She growled and pushed harder, only managing to slide closer to the destiny but at the same time it shifted and moved further to the side. Finally her strength gave and she found the sword up in the air as his anti-ship sword rose up over his shoulder.

To his credit she squeaked in surprise when she had to boost back to barely...BARELY dodge a slash from his massive blade. Still though she felt a slight difference in her arm rakes and looked down to see a deep gash in her torso. He had hit her! His swing had been fast enough to hit her!

She boosted even further back and watched as he looked to her and opened up with his head Vulcans. She raised her arms to block but nothing hit her. Blinking she was confused…till she screamed as her kampfer was sent into the air from an explosion behind her.

She grunted as her gunpla landed and she found herself staring at a street. Knowing he was likely standing over her, about to deal the killing blow she reached back and grabbed her shotgun…a weapon she rarely used due to her speed, and used her thrusters to roll over, aim the shotgun, and fired.

She mentally cried for joy when she hit the destiny…but barely did any damage. She was confused and looked to her left where she had been as he stood over her. His anti-ship sword was stuck in the ground where she had been and he was holding it, looking down at her.

Ying decided to take advantage of his confusion or chivalry or whatever it was that has him paused and finally boosted back slightly on her back as one of her shotgun pellets found a spot in one of his flash edge boomerangs and as she climbed to her feet she watched it explode.

"had enough yet?" she asked over her speakers as she thought maybe he was tired or bored and that was why he was just standing there. Her answer came in the former of his second beam boomerang coming in from her left and digging into her head unit, her main monitor going black.

She growled and switched to a separate camera. What she saw surprised her. Out of the smoke from his boomerang exploding came his destiny, walking towards her even as she pumped shell after shell into him. it was then she realized something and realized why her shotgun was barely doing any damage.

He was using a real grade. A real grade was meant to be as close to the real thing as possible in terms of looks and construction. That meant that perhaps somehow the arena read it as actually having variable phase shift armor? Meaning…she gasped as she noticed not a single bullet hole was in his armor. A few scrapes, a few scratches…but other than the ruined shoulder he was actually doing fine.

As her shotgun clicked empty she found herself backing into a building. She dropped the gun and opened up with her head Vulcans. Still nothing. Who was this kid? He was fast enough to block her, he could react faster than any of their members…and he built a real grade so well the system was treating it like it actually had variable phase shift armor…who was this kid?

She watched as he tore the boomerang from her head, disconnecting the unit from her body and heard it fall. She then felt him use the beam from the boomerang to sever each limb till her model fell to the ground and was basically useless. She then listened as he stalked off to go find Miguel. What was with this guy? Why not finish her?

She decided enough was enough and conceded, turning to watch Miguel through her cockpit system.

Miguel seemed to have a plan as he was currently sitting quietly, waiting in a nearby kids park. The green of his machine was hidden somewhat by the trees he was standing amongst.

Looking back into the arena she could see the destiny approaching the turtle. "come on Miguel…if anyone can bring him down it's you." She said as she watched the heavyarms move slightly as the destiny walked into the park.

As the turtle opened up with its chain guns shinn turned and lit up both its solidus fulgor beam shields to fully protect itself. Even with this though the sheer amount of firepower began to push it back.

Wanting to capitalize on this advantage though Miguel ended up stopping for only a second to change his chance before opening up again with the chain guns and opening all his missile ports but only firing the shoulder missiles though soon the leg and waist ones followed. The point of this being that as shin tried to move while the guns had stopped firing he had dropped his shields.

When Miguel had begun firing again he only brought up his small physical shield in order to block the rounds till he saw the missiles in which case he finally had to boost back, the missiles originally arching up and again coming at him in a pincer move. As Miguel fired the second set of missiles though he stopped firing the chain guns.

Expecting a trap shinn decided to set one of his own, while the other missiles exploded against the ground in front of him, making a smoke screen he grabbed his flash edge boomerang and threw it so it would make its own wide arc to come back at Miguel before he had to bring his small shield back up to be able to block SOME of the missiles in time.

As the smoke cleared Miguel was surprised to see the boomerang but quickly shot them down, confident it was a last-ditch effort made by shin. As it exploded in midair though the gunplay battler was surprised to have to boost to the side to block a shot from the destiny's high energy beam cannon, turning to see the beam core a few office buildings. Turning back to the destiny it was barely standing. The number of missiles that had hit it plus all of ying's rounds seem to have worn down whatever had given it it's variable phase shift armor as his right arm was gone, half the head was missing and one leg was down to the RG skeleton at the knee and thigh.

The one eye of the destiny was glaring at him with determination or so he saw it as it dropped the cannon, the weapon seeming to shatter into pieces as it did so. "you got guts kid, most people who know gundam wing well enough know not to charge heavy arms until it runs outta ammo." Stated Miguel as he watched the destiny slowly reach over it's right shoulder with its left arm and grab the arondite beam sword.

As he brought the blade across his body and it unfolded…it snapped in half, the beam quickly flashing and going out. Miguel was smiling, feeling content with clearly just how much damage he did to the model with a barrage.

When shinn took a step back though he was surprised. Then the destiny turned and boosted away, the navy brat growling as he moved to follow shinn. "hate it when they run away…your beaten kid…" he growled as he followed shinn.

What he hadn't expected was to follow him through the city back to the "river" and find him waiting with ying's heat sword. Miguel had to throw his thrusters in reverse just to miss spearing himself on the blade when he had rounded a corner.

With half a face, one arm, and the remainder of the model in a mangled state the destiny looked ready to fall over any second and according to the way the kid looked HE SHOULDN'T BE THIS GOOD! He should be pissed off and making mistakes left and right by now! But instead the kid was calm, cool, and not giving up. Who was this kid.

Finally, he spoke, deciding to give up the façade as Miguel noticed the arm seem to shake with the weight of the saber before finally the delicate RG frame inside snapped and it fell as well.

The kid was panting as he said. "good game. I have to admit this is way more fun than my practical knowledge classes in a GINN simulator." That voice! It couldn't be… and the way he spoke about being in a GINN simulator like he had actually lived it…

"hey…just who are you?" asked Miguel as the turtle took a step towards the destiny, the kid either not knowing when to quit or not knowing how, instead he stood there, the model shaking as it was clear that delicate frame was barely holding together. It was why most players used HG's as a base for custom models. Sure, an RG was great and all, plenty of details to beef up the quality of the build which was just as big a part of gunplay battle as actually building a great gunplay…but they were delicate. They were the actual show models of gunplay given the slightest touch could sometimes shatter them if not built properly.

As the destiny was forced to a knee the turtle bent down and picked up the heat sword, still stepping closer to the model, Miguel heard the kid chuckle. "my name is shinn asuka…THE shinn asuka…" he said as he watched the turtle lift up the heat saber, the destiny looking up with determination still in its one eye, like the pilot still thought he could win.

"well the "real" shinn…have to admit this is the first time anyone has given us this much of a challenge…but your beat…. so..." with that the custom heavyarms moved to bury the sword in the destiny's chest but instead the destiny maneuvered just right so that it leaned back to miss the hit then boosted forward at just the right angle to force the heavyarrms to instead spear itself through the cockpit.

As the two models fell together onto the streets of the colony both their optics slowly faded out, the plavsky particles already starting to dissipate as the battle system brought up the final results.

"BATTLE ENDED! DRAW!" it announced before beginning to shut down. While ying collected her beaten and battered kampfer, Miguel was laughing as he fell on his ass trying to find his way back to the couch in the room, tripping on himself.

"what's so funny?" asked shinn as Mr. ral helped him collected the destiny gundam which had oddly become grey. It had a few burned spots but otherwise was widely undamaged. Still only shinn knew the pain staking work it would take to return it too it's previous condition.

"you man! The way you fight, the way you look. You can't be him. I mean seriously I don't care if you're some method actor kid or whatever but shinn is a fictional character. Plus, the "real" shinn asuka could never beat us. Kid has the fuse length of a sparkler on the fourth of July man!" exclaimed Miguel as he finally began to settle down.

"but I followed my training, stayed cool under pressure, utilized my surroundings…. what exactly did I do wrong?" asked shinn, seemingly more hurt by the fact he won…sort of…but was being told he could never beat them as the "real" shinn.

"cause the real shinn never does that man. After he thought he killed Kira it got even worse but dude! You fought with twice the skill he showed in the anime. All it takes is a few missed shots and he's on fire, making mistakes left and right. Only time the kid did ANYTHING right was when he was in seed mode. THEN he fought like you just did. Granted he was no Kira in the strike but when he was in the impulse he…kinda rocked it…but I dunno he was still a novice. Then athrun shows up and he gets cocky when he pilots a zaku warrior better then he could in the impulse. One thing after another set the kid off." Said Miguel as he reached into a mini fridge by the couch and grabbed a soda, opening it and taking a sip.

"then he gets the destiny and starts lets durandal put that leash and collar on him and boom. Ten times worse. I mean my favorite screw up was when he sees Kira catch the ariondight with the strike freedom so later he seems to think "hey…if Kira can do that I'm gonna straight catch a damn beam saber in MY hands by thinking that these little pea shooters in my hands can match a beam saber. Gets his hands blown off I mean it's just embarrassing to watch him fight!" exclaimed Miguel, not noticing how every description he made of shinn only seemed to cause the boy to sulk more.

"well then maybe this is your chance to give him some character development. Some training. Listen. I`m going to tell you guys a secret that you can tell no one." Said Mr. ral as he patted Shinn's back and they all looked to him.

"a man by the name of Noah Carson designed an advanced gunplay battle system meant to be the next big step in an almost virtual reality like game. It was meant to put you in the thick of whatever gundam series you wanted and allow you to make whatever changes you wanted. So, say you wanted shinn to have that character development or even wanted to stop certain character from dying in a certain battle. You could do that. It would simulate the battle, all visual and audio communication between you and characters. But that was it. You were never meant to physically interact with them. He called it…the ZERO system." Stated Mr. ral which got a laugh from ying but she stayed quiet otherwise.

Mr. ral gave her a stern look before continuing. "but from what I have heard he instead has created a 4th wall breaking…portal of sorts…. but also, the system has evolved and grown sentient or something. Anyways it somehow pulled shinn FROM the cosmic era and brought him here. For what reason, I can't say. But perhaps this is his chance to get that character development he deserved. As you can tell he is still in his academy days. So, we train him, make him an even better fighter, give him a reason to go back and BE a better person…maybe…just maybe he will BE a better person and even help Noah during gundam seed destiny as I hear he has an invested interest in going back and seeing the cosmic era through both wars." Stated Mr. ral

This seemed to slightly irritate the ace in training but at the same time shinn wouldn't admit to the fact if there WAS going to be another war then if anyone could stop it while it is still only embers and not a full-blown war it was Noah.

Ying groaned and looked to shinn. "look…you be straight with me RIGHT. NOW! Are you shinn asuka?" asked ying to which shinn nodded.

"no no no. you can't say that. Look while I'm assuming this is borderline time travel shit Noah clearly hasn't ACTUALLY gone back and gone through the battle of orb yet or I bet he would have tried to save Shinn's family, stop him from ever becoming to enraged ass he becomes. So shinn…If you're the real deal I hate bringing this up…but how did your family die?" asked Miguel as he looked shinn in the eyes.

The coordinator glanced away and rung his hands. "an explosion…while we were trying to reach the safety of an evacuation ship..." stated shinn to which Miguel nodded.

"yeah…anyone who watched gundam seed destiny can tell me that. How? What caused it?" he asked, remembering the scene well enough.

Shinn took a deep breath and sighed. "one of celestial being's mobile suits exploded when it tried to make some barrier to stop…I think it was the freedom…aaaand the calamity…yeah the calamity firing at each other. It almost worked but I guess the combined firepower from the freedom and the calamity were too much and the unit exploded. I don't know what happened to the pilot but I hope he died. I blame celestial being and Noah Carson specifically for my family's death…" he growled

Miguel clapped his hands. "congrats…congratu-fucking- lations. You're the real deal. Dang it Mr. ral! Why? Why bring him here?" asked Miguel, leaving the others in the room puzzled.

"h-how does that prove who he is? He told us something easily fabricated by just inserting Noah Carson into it and you claim it's him..." stated ying but Miguel quickly opened his phone and showed ying a photo of someone holding a runner up trophy next to a battered and beaten custom exia.

"cause. Some kind of barrier? Noah Carson is known in the pro circuit for using only GN drive powered mobile suits. It was likely a GN field. Plus "celestial being's mobile suit". Come on ying you can't be that dense that you don't think Noah was there if he mainly uses those gundams. Likely his cover. What better than a third party anti-war group with mobile suit technology. Even if it wasn't him he likely introduced the cosmic era to GN drives." Said Miguel as he was clearly connecting the dots faster than his team mate.

Mr. ral nodded, "yes I heard from china something along those lines. And I brought him here because you need a third for the under 19 tournament, right? What better then shinn asuka?" he asked as he motioned to the table where Miguel's turtle still lay with a good-sized burn on its torso from where the blade had pierced the cockpit.

Ying turned to Miguel and sighed. "it's not a bad idea. Plus, ral is right. What if he goes back and thanks to us all the bull shit of destiny never happens or at least is lessened thanks to our efforts. Besides if he's gonna use a destiny gundam it gives me a chance to toy with some new model ideas I've been toying with. I mean…look at that…" she said, pointing to shinn's greyed out destiny.

"when was the last time you saw someone build an RG so well it reacted in the arena like it actually had phase shift armor of any kind and then grey's out at the end of the fight?" she asked and Miguel nodded.

"fine…I guess it works. And the turtle and the hare aren't enough?" he asked, seeming hurt she seemed to want to change their standard team up.

Ying giggled. "of course they are. I`ll repair my hare. But after I watched gundam IBO…that last episode…I started toying with the idea of a model I wanna call...the white wolf." She said, trying to see what her partner thought.

Miguel sighed and took a sip of his soda. "you and your animals. I swear. I guess I can retire the turtle for now. But shinn isn't gonna jump right into that destiny again. Gotta start with the basics." Stated Miguel as he got up and walked over to the battle room's door. Opening it he poked his head out. "hey! Amy! Get in here!" he shouted before waiting. A small, mousey little girl came bounding in, beaming as she looked to Miguel.

"was I chosen for the last battler spot? Please tell me yes." She said, crossing her fingers and waiting to hear the good news.

"no…" said Miguel to which the girl seemed to shatter internally. "then…then why call me in?" she asked to which Miguel pointed to shinn. The little girl seemed to gasp and ran over, going over shinn, his "costume" and then his destiny gundam.

Turning to Mr. ral she asked, "did you build this sir?" she asked, having watched him come in with . ral just shook his head. "I helped but not much. Just a few pointers." Stated Mr. ral.

"Amy. Focus. I have a job for you. You…specialize some-what in scratch building and conversions right?" asked Miguel to which she nodded. "good. I have a job for you. Your gonna join the team…but as a builder…for him." He said as he motioned to shinn. "I'll explain later but you can't tell anyone this. This is the REAL shinn asuka. No questions. Just hear me out." Said Miguel. It was clear this Amy girl would do anything for Miguel as she motioned to lock her lips and throw away the key.

"good. Shinn here is obviously a good builder. He somehow built this to the point the system reacted as I it actually had VPS armor. We eventually wore it down but ying faced him first and her shotgun did nothing. And his reaction speed. Oh, man you should have seen it. He managed to not only dodge but nearly countered our curtain call maneuver." Stated Miguel which got a gasp from Amy.

"so…your job is this. I don't want shinn to start in the destiny. We need to do something special with it I think. Make it a custom of his design. We can work on it throughout the tournament. But I want you to take a real grade strike and work with him to convert it into an impulse gundam of the same caliber as well as make all the silhouettes. if we can't make it to the finals and to the nationals with him in the impulse gundam fighting as well as he did today than we won't make it past round one of the nationals with him in a damn near straight built rg destiny. Think you can do that…oh and shinn…your looking at one of your biggest fans in this district." Stated Miguel to which shinn looked to Amy and could see the sparkle in her eyes.

Amy turned to Miguel and nodded, saluting him with determination in her eyes…but after a moment it faltered and she nervously poked her fingers together. "um…but what about budget? I don't exactly have a huge allowance or anything…and I need my styrene supplies or my own works…" she said to which Miguel weaved his hand. "go to Lori hobbies and put it on the clubs tab. I`ll pay it off later this month. Anyways I guess we are reworking the team. Ying get back to me later with your ideas for this…white wolf…that`ll help me decided if I'm going to change my main unit or not." Stated Miguel as he raped his knuckles on the gunplay battle arena.

"guess I'll go tell everyone the auditions are done. Shinn Mr. ral will get back to you with the information on when we meet, where we do our training, all that. I gotta get going guys…oh…and ying we never discussed our team name this year….so I guess we can just roll with this…" he said, turning to her as he stood in the doorway.

" **team impulse…."**

 _Team impulse_

 **Wow…so yeah…been what maybe just over a year, year and a half since I posted a chapter to this story? But as I stated in my authors note I was waiting to see if this very chapter was still on my tower. And hot damn it was! Mostly complete it was left FOR A YEAR just about at just after shinn had defeated the hare.**

 **Now I'm sure some of you might be curious as to why the destiny was grey at the end of the battle. The reason is mostly because it does in fact have VPS armor mainly due to the way it is painted and a little silent modification done thanks to the zero systems recent link with the gunplay battle system as a whole with the Gabriel gundam. So basically, like how in team celestial sphere VS team von Braun the crossbone full cloth had to keep refueling its particles from the other models this phase shift armor takes up A LOT of the particles meant for the gunpla itself. When those particles run out the system may not show it but the protective VPS armor runs out and the model's quality is suddenly no better than a straight built model though shinn doesn't know this just quite yet. No one does.**

 **Anyways I hope you all enjoyed it, I plan to keep writing this story though my original two, celestial seed and cosmic being will still be on hold till I get chapter one of my new story I'm working on called, black flag, is up and I see which people prefer, Noah or my new main character Everett.**

 **Please don't forget to review, glad to be back bitches!**

 **P.S. watch wackymodder84's rant on the destiny gundam and you`ll understand my (1) thing. I meant to add more but watch that and you`ll see why I personally am not a fan of the destiny.**


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